Police: Prostitute Killed Tech Exec With Heroin
July 10th, 2014
05:11 AM ET
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Police: Prostitute Killed Tech Exec With Heroin

A woman whom police describe as a high-end prostitute is under arrest after they say she injected a Silicon Valley tech executive with heroin and then casually left as he lay dying.

Forrest Timothy Hayes, 51, had an "ongoing prostitution relationship" with Alix Catherine Tichleman, 26, when he was found dead November 23 aboard his 50-foot yacht in the Santa Cruz harbor, according to a police statement.

Detectives say security footage from the yacht shows Tichleman, who boasted of over 200 client relationships via a website called "Seeking Arrangements," injecting Hayes with heroin.

"Rather than provide first aid or call 911, Ms. Tichleman proceeds to gather her belongings including the heroin and needles," the police statement reads.

Tichleman stepped over Hayes' body several times while gathering her belongings, at one point stepping over him to finish a glass of wine, police say.

They say the video finally shows her leaving the boat and then reaching back to lower a blind and conceal the victim's body from outside view.

Tichleman appeared in court in Santa Cruz on Wednesday. She is being charged with manslaughter, administering heroin to another person, administering bodily harm, moving heroin across county lines, possession of heroin and prostitution charges. A public defender asked that her arraignment be postponed until July 16.

MORE on CNN.com.

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December 10th, 2013
10:30 AM ET
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Report: Spies Snoop Online Games

Spies with surveillance agencies in the United States and United Kingdom may have spent time undercover as orcs and blood elves, infiltrating video games like "World of Warcraft" in a hunt for terrorists "hiding in plain sight" online, reports CNN's Brian Todd.

That's the finding of the most recent round of documents released by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden to British newspaper The Guardian.

Agents from the CIA, FBI and Pentagon and England's Government Communications Headquarters infiltrated WoW and virtual world "Second Life," as well as collecting information on the Xbox Live gaming network, according to the documents.

A 2008 NSA memo called online gaming a "target-rich communications network" where terrorists could communicate "in plain sight."

"And conceivably, terrorists could plan real attacks through these fantasy games," Todd says.

"Experts say, the fake identities, voice and chat capability, the ability to speak to others in real time, are all features of game play that terrorists find attractive."

None of the newly leaked documents, published this time in conjunction with ProPublica and the New York Times, mentioned specific terrorist activity foiled via the projects.

But apparently so many agents were engaged in playing video games for national security that a "deconfliction" group was created to make sure government agents weren't accidentally spying on each other.

Unlike traditional console and desktop games in which players compete in a closed environment, massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) allow players from around the world to team up and play together, often in real time using in-game communication tools.

"World of Warcraft" is the most popular online role-playing game ever. It peaked at about 12 million subscribers in 2010 and still has more than 7 million, according to Blizzard.

It's unclear whether the agencies had surveillance capabilities within the massively multi-player games that normal players would not. A spokesman for Blizzard Entertainment, which owns "World of Warcraft," told The Guardian it is unaware of any surveillance having taken place.

"If it was, it would have been done without our knowledge or permission," the spokesman said.

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December 3rd, 2013
10:22 AM ET
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Amazon's Drone Delivery: How Would it Work?

Imaginations everywhere have been stoked since Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced his company plans to start offering 30-minute deliveries via drone-like "octocopters."

What's not fascinating about a near future in which fleets of whirring sky robots can drop our every impulse buy on our doorstep faster than we can get Chinese delivered? (You know, aside from accidental strayings into restricted air space or the rise of the machines.)

But when Bezos took to "60 Minutes" on Sunday to introduce the world to Amazon Prime Air, his idea prompted more questions than it provided answers.

So how close are we, really, to door-to-door drones becoming a reality? And how would they work?

Wired magazine's Jason Paur  says "It's feasible...I still think it's going to be a long ways off before it's going to be these autonomous, completely unpiloted vehicles are able to move through cities and deliver packages. It's not even on the horizon yet."

SEE FULL INTERVIEW ABOVE

CNN reached out to Amazon, where official details are still scarce, and chatted with drone expert Missy Cummings, an associate professor at MIT and one of the Navy's first female fighter pilots. Here's some of what we've been able to piece together on a project that Amazon says is, at the very least, a couple of years away from takeoff.

Fore more visit CNN.com. 

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